Why Mars is America’s next strategic imperative



Space is the defining strategic frontier of the 21st century. America’s space leadership depends on harnessing the private sector to create wealth and focusing the public sector on limited yet critical security and scientific objectives.

While achieving supremacy in cislunar space (the region between Earth and the moon, including the moon’s surface) must be our immediate aim, it lacks the strategic coherence to sustain American leadership over the long term.

America’s commercial space sector provides the capability and incentives to make Mars exploration both symbolically and economically rewarding.

We need long-term goals to define success and clarify tradeoffs. A manned mission to Mars can do both.

China and Russia, our near-peer competitors in space, pose serious challenges. Beijing openly pursues dominance in the Earth-moon system while accelerating toward Mars, with an ambitious sample return mission scheduled for 2028. Russia maintains formidable military capabilities in space, alongside proven Mars science achievements.

If our authoritarian rivals prevail, the world’s free nations may find their ability to access and use space significantly curtailed.

This is why the United States needs a unifying long-term vision that focuses and directs near-term commercial, military, and scientific objectives. We must also research and develop technologies for sustained living in space. A smart Mars strategy provides the needed framework, creating the technological roadmap and institutional durability to win the cislunar competition and position America for permanent space premiership.

Unleash the private sector

America’s commercial space revolution offers a compelling model for space exploration that our competitors cannot match. Most obviously, market forces have been essential for reducing launch costs. SpaceX has already demonstrated that private initiative can outpace government bureaucracies, slashing launch costs from $18,000 per kilogram during the Space Shuttle era to roughly $2,700 for today’s reusable Falcon 9.

A healthy ecosystem of suppliers, including Blue Origin, proves this success isn’t limited to one company. Cheaper launches mean increased launch cadence, which is necessary to keep space habitats provisioned. This is a prerequisite for conducting the research and tests for a journey to Mars.

China’s approach offers an instructive contrast. While Beijing tolerates private sector participation, it ultimately remains under state control. This creates strategic coherence but sacrifices the agility and inventiveness that drive transformative breakthroughs.

Chinese private space companies operate as tools of the state. Precisely because the Chinese Communist Party subordinates the information-generating and incentive-aligning features of markets, they will never enjoy the full benefits of space commerce.

Preparing for Mars missions will yield new technologies with dual-use applications. On-orbit refueling, advanced life support systems, radiation shielding, nuclear propulsion, and autonomous manufacturing capabilities developed for Mars will flow back into energy production, medical devices, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing here on Earth. It will also bolster military preparedness through advancements in basic and applied sciences. All this redounds to national security by increasing the resilience of our space assets.

These developments promise substantial job creation across skill and education levels. While Mars missions certainly demand high-tech expertise and advanced degrees, they also require skilled technicians, machinists, and assembly specialists. Going to Mars will help revitalize America’s industrial base while broadly distributing economic prosperity.

Winning the long game

While a single Mars mission could take 30 months or longer, a Mars program will likely span decades, requiring support from multiple Congresses and presidential administrations.

Avoiding the start-stop cycles that have plagued space programs — from Apollo to Constellation — requires building institutional and political durability at the outset. The foundation must be bipartisan, framing Mars leadership as a matter of national security and economic competitiveness.

Bold endeavors define our national character. Amid social and political fragmentation, undertaking something even greater than a moonshot is an opportunity for national solidarity.

Private-sector anchoring creates a robust foundation. Expanding milestone-based public-private partnerships ties American industry to Mars logistics and operations. When companies and workers nationwide have a stake in space exploration, political support becomes geographically broad and resilient across electoral cycles. Ultimately, mission success offers the best defense against annual appropriations turbulence.

The federal government’s role must remain limited and focused. Agencies should help finance foundational research and development through mission-oriented programs. Public-private agreements should be structured to maximize flexibility. Renting services rather than purchasing equipment ought to be the government’s default approach.

We must also maintain a predictable regulatory environment that protects property rights and resists bureaucratic mission creep. The government’s comparative advantage is setting long-term national objectives and coordinating industry on best practices. While public values channeled through the political process set our destination, private initiative and the profit motive serve as our most powerful engine.

Leveraging alliances

Integration with existing programs maximizes efficiency. The groundwork for future Mars missions should complement, not duplicate, the Space Force’s cislunar operations and NASA’s Artemis lunar architecture. On the international stage, the U.S. should leverage its alliances while ensuring American leadership in setting exploration norms through frameworks such as the Artemis Accords.

Building on our success with the Artemis Accords, we should actively pursue partnerships with the European Union and Japan. We should also deepen space ties with India, which may induce it to align with the free world instead of Russia and China. History has shown our allies will help shoulder the burdens of freedom if America has the courage to lead.

Strategic signaling to allies and competitors augments the framework. A stable, legislated Mars roadmap reassures international partners while deterring rivals, ensuring program continuity.

To the Red Planet!

Mars represents the next great test of American resolve. Bold endeavors define our national character. Amid social and political fragmentation, undertaking something even greater than a moonshot is an opportunity for national solidarity.

The strategic necessity is clear, the economic logic is compelling, and the technological pathway is feasible. What Mars demands now is the political will to harness America’s asymmetric advantages for humanity’s greatest adventure.

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Photo by Yang Guanyu/Xinhua via Getty Images

Getting to Mars requires the fortitude to sustain multiyear missions alongside the business discipline to achieve them cost-effectively. America’s commercial space sector provides the capability and incentives to make Mars exploration both symbolically and economically rewarding. Situating our cislunar activities within a Mars plan makes the payoffs even clearer. The moon and Mars are complements, not substitutes.

The choice before us is to either lead a free, rules-based expansion of human civilization beyond Earth or cede the final frontier to authoritarianism. If we fail, we relegate ourselves to the status of a nation in decline. We cannot accept red flags on the Red Planet.

Editor’s note: This article was published originally in the American Mind.

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How space travel became right-wing



Over the weekend, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its Starship with a Super Heavy rocket and successfully recovered the rocket’s first stage during an unmanned test flight. In a remarkable display of engineering, the first stage made a controlled descent to Earth and was secured back onto its launch platform by a mechanical arm. This achievement should have been an inspiring moment for all Americans. But many leftists took to social media to express outrage that a Trump supporter was responsible for the historic event.

As Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance praised the technological triumph, commentators made bewildering statements, wondering how the dream of space travel had become culturally associated with Republicans. So-called progressives have built their political strategy around demonizing the very elements that make scientific progress possible. Now, they are shocked to find their opponents seen as champions of a brighter future.

Those who are willing to sacrifice and persevere will ultimately reach for the stars, escaping the stifling, suffocating, and resentful grip of leftism to realize their dreams.

When I was young, space exploration was viewed as an inevitable part of the near future. The United States had won the space race in the 1960s, and while astronauts had not landed on a celestial body for over a decade, shuttle missions were common. We were landing remote rovers on Mars, and most of us assumed that manned missions to the red planet were well within reach.

The dream of exploring the stars was also politically bipartisan. Republicans embraced the patriotism and pride attached to the achievement, while Democrats saw it as a step toward their “Star Trek”-inspired vision of a post-scarcity utopia.

As the United States solidified its position as the only global superpower, ironically, the drive to prove dominance through space exploration waned. NASA’s achievements became less impressive, and the agency clearly oversold many of its projections. Republicans began viewing the program as a bloated government expense in need of budget cuts, while Democrats saw an opportunity to redirect funding to their supporters here on Earth. NASA limped along with fewer launches and delayed major projects, and while science fiction remained part of popular culture, the idea of real-world space travel seemed to fade farther into the background.

Regardless of how one feels about Elon Musk, it’s hard not to see echoes of Ayn Rand’s “man of industry” in his struggle against a system that tries to keep him tethered to Earth. SpaceX has certainly benefited from government contracts, but it has also fought off stifling regulations and lawsuits while achieving something the government seemed incapable of. The leftists' outcry that SpaceX should be nationalized now that it has proven successful outside government control highlights the parasitic nature of the progressive regime they’ve created.

Musk may not fit the mold of a typical conservative, and it’s doubtful he ever sought to become a political figure, but his ambition is undeniable. He and many other leaders and entrepreneurs have realized that the dominant leftist regime will make their grand visions impossible. Progressives have embraced a politics driven by graft and spite. Their policies punish success and innovation while fostering a culture of envy and entitlement. Ambition is now labeled as dangerous, and prosperity is seen as something to be collectively plundered for political gain.

Democrats have transformed universities into centers of woke indoctrination, rejecting merit in favor of racial and sexual biases that favor their client classes. What began as an infection in the softer fields of the humanities has now spread to the hard sciences. Woke ideology has branded critical aspects of the scientific method as cultural imperialism and turned math into a symbol of white supremacy. Valuing the written word, prioritizing punctuality, emphasizing efficiency, and striving for perfection — traits essential to launching humans into space — are now labeled as forms of colonial oppression.

While I’ve always been a fan of science fiction and fascinated by space travel, I never fully grasped its significance as a social ambition. Earth is rife with unsolved problems, so why not focus our efforts here?

I’ve come to understand the role that boldness and greatness play in the health of a civilization. Western man, or “Faustian man,” as Oswald Spengler described him, has a deep need to discover and expand. In many ways, the United States was forged by its expansion and taming of the frontier. Without a new frontier to explore, Western societies seem to turn inward and consume themselves. Space, as the final frontier, calls us to greatness.

In the end, progressives are right about one thing: Their relentless attacks on merit, ambition, and achievement have made space exploration a domain of the right. Leftist ideology cannot tolerate the concept of great individuals or natural hierarchies, which is why it fails to reach for the achievements those people make possible.

We are all equal in value before God, but we are not equal in our abilities or accomplishments. Those who strive for greatness must embody the very traits Democrats have demonized. It is those who are willing to sacrifice and persevere who will ultimately reach for the stars, escaping the stifling, suffocating, and resentful grip of leftism to realize their dreams.

The 2nd 'Space Race' is Underway! - What is NASA Planning?
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The 2nd 'Space Race' is Underway! - What is NASA Planning?

At SpaceX stands the 'Gateway to Mars' and the future of the human race



A few days after our recent interview, science writer Joe Pappalardo took his 89-year-old dad to the Space X Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, so I tagged along. Before he'd entered the facility, the elder Mr. Pappalardo had never seen anything like it. At the entrance, he examined the message inscribed on the giant outer wall: “GATEWAY TO MARS.”

These kinds of declarative (and imperative) statements rouse something prelinguistic in us. For some reason, humans have evolved into conquerors, desperate for more territory. This is good. It’s one of our finest qualities.

So, father and son approached the hulking megastructures of Elon Musk’s aerospace wonderland, and Musk’s promises became more noticeable. Space flight, of course, but most impressively, the possibility of a safe return, rocket and all.

Sunlight poured down, and the world around Mr. Pappalardo must have felt mechanically different as he strolled into the bustling, futuristic cityscape. Jutting up from the swarm are three giant modules, 160 feet tall. Were these the spires and beams of a science amusement park?

It was all so advanced.

He hadn’t expected so much construction, but when he considered it, it made sense: Invention and trial demand constant upkeep. Like ants ferrying soil into an empire, the hubbub of activity became a spectacle of its own. He couldn’t believe how many people were there, and he wondered why so many of them had cameras.

“One guy out there had a telephoto zoom lens on his camera,” he tells me. “He was taking pictures of everything. Maybe you're thinking, ‘Maybe he was a spy.’ Never know.”

Very large chopsticks

Kevin Ryan

Mr. Pappalardo remembers waking everyone up to witness Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the lunar surface. The entire family was vacationing on the Jersey Shore. After a day at the beach, they were all tired, but that didn’t matter because there was a man, an American, on the moon with his giant space boots.

But the machinery of Space X is insurmountably more advanced.

At 5,000 tons, Starship is the largest, most powerful rocket ever made, about the height of the Pyramid of Giza. It’s designed to be reusable. Starbase has 10 Starship launches, four of which also returned a landing.

“The launch pad has these appendages called ‘chopsticks’,” Mr. Pappalardo tells me, “where they plan on having the rocket come back and land on the launch pad where it left, which is quite remarkable.”

As you can tell by his quotes, the man is incredibly sharp, not for his age, but in general. We spoke for 30 minutes, late afternoon, and he could have kept chatting for an hour.

Born and raised in Haverstraw, New York, Mr. Pappalardo was a chemist for decades. His demeanor and intellectual precision reflect this, though not in the form of austerity.

I ask, “Do the principles of the laboratory emerge in the Starbase setting?”

“Well, it is very different,” he says, “ because in the laboratory, we're dealing with little things, but the principles are the same. When you want to achieve something, you develop a hypothesis of how you want to get there, and you test it and get there.”

The seafarer

In his northeastern baritone, Mr. Pappalardo recalls his sailing days. One trip took him from Antigua in the Caribbean to Charleston, South Carolina. He quickly learned the difference between sailing on the sea straight through the Bermuda Triangle and navigating the beastly power of the Atlantic Ocean.

When storms hit, the waves could become mountainous.

“You can see waves higher over your head on your left and waves over your head on your right,” he tells me. “Now, you know the physics of it, that the waves can't do this,” he brings his hands together, “they can't combine, but while you're there you're not too sure.”

Sometimes, the endless waves stung with loneliness — the howl of repetition full of clouds. But, perhaps most of all, he remembers the moments of tranquility.

“At nighttime when you hold the wheel and the boat is just hissing along through the surf and nothing around, it's all dark and just the moon: It's beautiful, absolutely beautiful.”

Remember: Humans used to know a world of clear water, and what we did was build a ship and explore.

The ways that history fell

Head east a smidge along the Gulf of Mexico, and you’ll run into South Padre Island, where enthusiastic college kids have been known to chug until they start puking.

Brownsville, in the other direction, has repeatedly been a battleground of all sorts over the past two centuries. It is one of America’s southernmost points — you can practically sneeze at Mexico and make contact.

The closeness of it all feels uncanny, yet American, as if these locations had spilled out by accident and suctioned together like a Ziploc full of random souvenirs that don’t belong.

Of course, what’s more American than this uncanny accidental mishmash of events, ideas, and places, where a person like Mr. Pappalardo can begin life as the son of Italian immigrants and then quickly, invisibly plug into the depths of a history like ours, so vibrant and strong and broken?

Dromology

We discuss the engulfing pace of change, the fever of acceleration that keeps outpacing everything, even itself, too powerful and inhuman to get tired. These breakthroughs leap to action daily.

“The problem is that they're advancing so fast that no one can possibly keep up,” he tells me. “But every time this subject comes up, I always think of my father. He went from the horse-and-buggy days to the man on the moon. You don't get any more variation than that.”

The debate is between the evangelists of a neuro-connective frontier, where technology, as an instrument, builds and destroys only at someone’s command, and the rapture-loving snobs all too eager to convince greater society to be sad about capitalism in a whole new depressing way.

In his spaz of a book “One-Dimensional Man,” Frankfurt School mainstay Herbert Marcuse characterizes technology as “an instrument for control and domination” and mass media as an integral part of that process. (Well, at least he’s right about the dubious habits of the media apparatus.)

Marcuse frames this as the technological domination of our “advanced industrial society,” and thus devotes himself to rattling the “new forms of control” that arise as part of this “one-dimensional society.”

It strikes me as a paranoid and stubbornly theoretical stance, itself one-dimensional. There’s an incoherence to this lot’s obsession with characterizing technology as totalitarian. Instead, we have a society shaped by technological monks and bureaucrats who, yes, have special access to mass events. But this is entirely different than owning an iPhone.

Tech is precisely what diminishes and even capsizes any sort of political rapture. It does appear that technology has eradicated geography as a reality or obstacle. But in its place, we have limitless access to the code of human thought.

Like every other anecdote Mr. Pappalardo provides, this is guided by a spirit of exploration.

As Italian philosopher Bifo Berardi observes in his book "Futurability," “Technology is not a chain of logical implications, but a field of immanent conflicting possibilities.” These potentialities strengthen the connective force of digital neural networks.

In a world that constantly grows closer to all of its network machinery, including us, and all the equipment we have transformed into accidents and failures, with the one periodic success among them — the ship still belongs to both the expedition and the shipwreck.

Because method, questions, and curiosity can calm the rigors of progress.

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